Patrick Leahy: “I think it was bad enough. But if my wife is watching this, she is going to wonder who this person is and who is coming…”

“I think it was bad enough. But if my wife is watching this, she is going to wonder who this person is and who is coming home tonight with all these nice things you have said about me. I thank the Senator from Nevada who has helped make it possible. He and Senator Daschle helped us get the rooms under difficult circumstances so we could have this hearing. I had the markup this morning, where we sent out, between judges and U.S. attorneys, about 18 people, virtually all of whom were there on the recommendation of Republican Senators. Because of his help, we were able to get a hearing room for this afternoon. The point the Senator made was a good point. He mentioned the judicial nominee for Nevada. He traveled 3,000 miles to be here for a hearing, assuming, of course, we were going to have the hearing today. Those plans came before the anthrax scare and, all of a sudden, everything shut down. The Senator from Nevada, in his usual way, where he worries about everybody, it seems, came to me and said: People came this distance; can we do something to help them out? Of course, we can. We have been trying to do that to accommodate everybody. There is one thing I find with great amusement, and that is when people say ``look at the vacancies.'' Well, that is right, Mr. President, there are vacancies. President Clinton nominated people for virtually all of those vacancies, and they were not even allowed to have a hearing, to say nothing about a vote.”